Cannot_Wait_4Disney
The Colombo of Cippolini.
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
This was a Tuesday and the MK was not all that crowded. We arrived about 5:10 for our 5:30 reservation. We deliberately made this early so we could get out for Spectro. As it turns out, we caught Spectro on Saturday so it was not a big issue. Good thing we did. Because if it were, we would not have been pleased. IT took about 15 minutes just to get to the podium. They were obviously behind. We got in to sit down at about 6. We got lucky again and got a window straight in front of the castle. We even got to see the character show from our seat.
The Food. Selection here was pretty good. It is better than Chef Mickeys selection wise as far as having more things to choose from. They had the usual prime rib. They had ham this day. They had pork chops and pork roast. They had Peel and eat shrimp and other salads, plus the salad bar.
It was all good with one exception. They had a dish of Curried mussels. the Mussels were not to temperature, nor were they cooked properly. Minus points going down accordingly. That is my pet peave and admittedly may be tainting the rest of my review a bit. Get the food to temperature and change it out often enough to keep it there. It is one of the reasons why you will not see this experienced trougher at any buffet during off hours. Everything else was to temperature and replenished promptly though and I caught the mussels before I ate one of them. The Prime Rib was pretty much a piece that would upset most diners. It was full of fat. It was not off the end either. But once I got it trimmed, what meat was left was very good and tasty. The Pork was excellent. It wasn't greasy, but was not dry either. The shrimp, black bean, and pineapple salad was excellent. But the rest of the prepared salads I could take or leave. The mushroom and chicken pasta with the asagio cream sauce was the best dish of the day and it was marvelous. Alll in all it was a good meal, with the problems noted.
Characters. The character interaction was good with Tigger and Eeyore, especially tigger. Piglet is in the middle. He was really good this time as well. But the first time around Pooh just plain skipped us. Ouch. Then no pooh, and no pooh, Finally when we're eating desert, here comes pooh. But he is skipping tables again and he has 2 handlers with him. And it was like Zoom, Hi, bye. And the handlers are not allowing any interaction whatsoever. I noticed why when they had to repair poor pooh. Pooh must have been undergoing a growth spurt. It seems his bones grew faster than his skin. Maybe he's going through poohberty. He skipped any table his handlers thought he had been to previously and they were keeping track with a wireless. They were definitely minimizing pooh's exposure. Now I don't begrudge them the fact that pooh was under the weather. But llet a parent know beforehand that pooh isn't quite himself. Here instead of a napkin twirl, they have a parade. Needless to say it was Tigger and Eeyore leading the parades.
Service. Our server was good. In fact she was more than good. She was obviously hussling. Yet she was friendly and changed out the drinks for us promptly. She ran a bit behind on plate pickup, and I ended up having to run my check over to the station, but I'm not going to ding her for that. She simply had too much ground to cover. And I don't know whether it was a manager or a superviser or what have you, but he was wearing a tie and holding the mobile keyboard. If he was management, he needed to get his hands dirty and help out his staff. It was easy to see why they were 30 minutes down when I got there. A little bit here, a little bit there, and it added up. Tables took 5-10 minutes to turn after patrons left. It was a coordination issue more than anything. We didn't get out of there until 15 minutes before parade time. We had already seen it but we decided to head over to Liberty Square and the like. We had to go the backway through adventureland because the bridge was already closed.
Value for the money-Credit.
If I were paying out of pocket and wanted to see the characters, I would definitely do breakfast here over the dinner. For the money, I think the breakfast here is a better deal. It is less expensive and I came out feeling more satisfied. As far as a credit, yes, I would do dinner here. But I would definitely look in the context of the other places I was heading. If I also had CM's or pf, I would do dinner at those two and breakfast here unless I absolutely wanted alice instead of cindy. Then I would switch out.
Overall we enjoyed the crystal palace. There were just little problems everywhere that made it less magical than it could have been. The mussels were a problem but the good thing is at a buffet, you can just choose other things. We will return, but probably more likely for breakfast. My son is starting to outgrow the pooh set so I think next trip I'll be making a before the park opens time slot for this one at breakfast and after that, we will return but we will not be making a special effort to go here. They grow up way too fast don't they?
The Food. Selection here was pretty good. It is better than Chef Mickeys selection wise as far as having more things to choose from. They had the usual prime rib. They had ham this day. They had pork chops and pork roast. They had Peel and eat shrimp and other salads, plus the salad bar.
It was all good with one exception. They had a dish of Curried mussels. the Mussels were not to temperature, nor were they cooked properly. Minus points going down accordingly. That is my pet peave and admittedly may be tainting the rest of my review a bit. Get the food to temperature and change it out often enough to keep it there. It is one of the reasons why you will not see this experienced trougher at any buffet during off hours. Everything else was to temperature and replenished promptly though and I caught the mussels before I ate one of them. The Prime Rib was pretty much a piece that would upset most diners. It was full of fat. It was not off the end either. But once I got it trimmed, what meat was left was very good and tasty. The Pork was excellent. It wasn't greasy, but was not dry either. The shrimp, black bean, and pineapple salad was excellent. But the rest of the prepared salads I could take or leave. The mushroom and chicken pasta with the asagio cream sauce was the best dish of the day and it was marvelous. Alll in all it was a good meal, with the problems noted.
Characters. The character interaction was good with Tigger and Eeyore, especially tigger. Piglet is in the middle. He was really good this time as well. But the first time around Pooh just plain skipped us. Ouch. Then no pooh, and no pooh, Finally when we're eating desert, here comes pooh. But he is skipping tables again and he has 2 handlers with him. And it was like Zoom, Hi, bye. And the handlers are not allowing any interaction whatsoever. I noticed why when they had to repair poor pooh. Pooh must have been undergoing a growth spurt. It seems his bones grew faster than his skin. Maybe he's going through poohberty. He skipped any table his handlers thought he had been to previously and they were keeping track with a wireless. They were definitely minimizing pooh's exposure. Now I don't begrudge them the fact that pooh was under the weather. But llet a parent know beforehand that pooh isn't quite himself. Here instead of a napkin twirl, they have a parade. Needless to say it was Tigger and Eeyore leading the parades.
Service. Our server was good. In fact she was more than good. She was obviously hussling. Yet she was friendly and changed out the drinks for us promptly. She ran a bit behind on plate pickup, and I ended up having to run my check over to the station, but I'm not going to ding her for that. She simply had too much ground to cover. And I don't know whether it was a manager or a superviser or what have you, but he was wearing a tie and holding the mobile keyboard. If he was management, he needed to get his hands dirty and help out his staff. It was easy to see why they were 30 minutes down when I got there. A little bit here, a little bit there, and it added up. Tables took 5-10 minutes to turn after patrons left. It was a coordination issue more than anything. We didn't get out of there until 15 minutes before parade time. We had already seen it but we decided to head over to Liberty Square and the like. We had to go the backway through adventureland because the bridge was already closed.
Value for the money-Credit.
If I were paying out of pocket and wanted to see the characters, I would definitely do breakfast here over the dinner. For the money, I think the breakfast here is a better deal. It is less expensive and I came out feeling more satisfied. As far as a credit, yes, I would do dinner here. But I would definitely look in the context of the other places I was heading. If I also had CM's or pf, I would do dinner at those two and breakfast here unless I absolutely wanted alice instead of cindy. Then I would switch out.
Overall we enjoyed the crystal palace. There were just little problems everywhere that made it less magical than it could have been. The mussels were a problem but the good thing is at a buffet, you can just choose other things. We will return, but probably more likely for breakfast. My son is starting to outgrow the pooh set so I think next trip I'll be making a before the park opens time slot for this one at breakfast and after that, we will return but we will not be making a special effort to go here. They grow up way too fast don't they?
thanks for the review!
Enjoyed your review and this "poohberty" comment is hilarious! 
